Usain Bolt nearly beaten in season opener - only wins in 10.09 after his training partner lets up

yyy wrote:

rumors on the street is that Bolt is in very very heavy training and is expected to knock 0.5 sec off his time

once he eases up.

rumors on the street is that Bolt is in very very heavy training and is expected to knock 0.5 sec off his time

once he juices up

Fixed it for ya ;)

Optimus wrote:

Discuss. Beat Kemar Bailey-Cole by less than a hundredth of a second.

Why do people think Bolt even cares? He's just doubled for the second time in the Olympics and will live off his endorsements and appearance fees. If he still wants to compete in 2016, then he'll get ready and double again.

From some who was at the meet (not me), it looked like Bolt lost or a dead heat at best and Cole starting counting his money when there were still cards on the table. They also said there was no way the announcer could have known Bolt was the winner with out the aid of fl camera.

Btw, since when did 10.01 become a bad season opener.

TrackCoach wrote:

Btw, since when did 10.01 become a bad season opener.

It hasn't. Kiryu had a great season opener. 10.09 on the other hand...

This looked like nothing other than a training race, done to fulfill commitments. It is likely that Bolt was doing a favor for someone, while also for himself.

Complete scam. Incredibly, the integrity of the men's 100m has sunk to even lower levels.

In hindsight, this kind of depravity should have been predictable--after all, where is there to go after the empire has reached its heights? The Fall, that is where. Debauchery. Back-stabbing. In-fighting. The breaking of old bonds, the forming of new temporary alliances of convenience. No trust. Every man for himself.

And ultimately, disintegration.

Subsequent rebirth, possibly--but maybe in a very different form.

It was LONG AGO that the men's 100m ceased to be primarily an athletic event, and became instead an ersatz form of spectacle. It is still an event, but the goals and meanings have changed. Facts have been replaced by fiction; sportsmanship has been replaced by greed; work has been replaced by strategy; and glory has been replaced by money.

You wouldn't believe what is going on, if only you knew. Some insiders, past and present, know--but things are so fragmented that nobody knows everything, and everybody is trying to climb atop the rolling ball.

It would be nice if there was a high-enough quality vid to analyze. Until then, this "race" gets a big "whatever" from me.

Brief race recap here:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/05/usain-bolt-opens-2013-season-with-a-less-than-impressive-10-09/

And now a picture of the photo finish and full race video

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2013/05/photos-finish-and-race-video-of-usain-bolts-2013-season-opening-10-09-at-the-2013-cayman-international-invitational/

Matt Centrowitz wrote:

How relaxed did he look?

this is the only answer.

Thought we were supposed to learn from history.

Ben Johnson - Usain Bolt

Carl Lewis - Tyson Gay

Class is over.

Whoa.

Way to get an innocuous thread deleted.

Back on your meds, son.

So now we know why Bolt had a strain before the Jamaican Invitational. Can you imagine what Bolt vs Gay would have looked like last weekend? In Jamaica? Holy $hit that would have been funny.

Everyone who has ever run under 9.90 seconds is a massive doper.

Nah, Bolt was supposed to run the 200

It's really hard to tell what is going on with Bolt right now.

One thing is absolutely certain in my mind, and that is that he is not currently suffering any actual injury, nor has he at any time recently.

Was his Cayman 10.09 an accurate reflection of his current ability? I honestly don't know. It would be a believable clean time for him, but it is not believable that he has been clean for his career, and that he therefore retains some benefit from his previous use.

Which brings up the issue of whether he really would be even a 9.9-guy, clean...heck, maybe he's a 10.1 guy clean, or a 10.0 guy.

I think the time and race in Cayman were not representative of his current capability, unless I am vastly underestimating the effect, and speed, of current PED's, or his response thereto.

Yes, we have seen him go from ordinarily excellent to the second-best all-time in one month...but if 10.09 would be believable, he would be about .50 off his recorded best, and .45 off his best of only 8 months ago. Unless he is on super-juice, or unless he is the highest responder ever, I think that's too big of a gap. I would still put him around 9.9x right now going full-out, I think that's more reasonable.

Of course, there IS some evidence to suggest that he IS in fact the highest responder ever, and/or that he IS on super-juice. But I think we'll see his real capability on show soon enough, and it will be significantly better than 10.09

How about the 200? Would he have gotten beaten by Ashmeade in 20.00? I have no idea. He has that huge stride that just eats up ground down the finishing straight, but he has been known to tie up, even in the 100m. I don't think you can take anything from that straight 150 on the beach in Rio--first of all there was no curve, and second, the timing/wind reading absolutely have to be questionable--it was a show race on a beach, after all.

Regardless of whether or not he would have been beaten, I do think that in order to have won, he would have had to have tried hard, meaning run a hard curve. He doesn't like to push himself when he doesn't need to, especially around a curve--and he would have needed to in the JII 200m--so, if the incentive isn't good enough, scratch that one.

Apparently, the incentive WASN'T good enough.

Depending on how things go this season, I would not be surprised to see Bolt actually pull out of the WC in Moscow, thereby depriving any other competitor like Gay of an "actual victory". Everybody knows the victory isn't complete unless you beat Bolt. Sure Blake won WC's, but he obviously wasn't better than Bolt because he didn't beat him--confirmed in London a year later.

If things get dicey, Bolt will not show up at anything other than the European meets at which he will get paid handsomely, in fulfilment of his contractual obligations and incentives--but if his performances are sub-par, he will blame it on some sort of unseen injury, and will pull out of any actual competitions as a result.

So, will he even show up at Jamaican nationals, which figure to be a "real competition"? I think it will depend on how he progresses between now and then, and how he sees Blake progressing. Powell seems to be off everybody's radar. I don't think he'd mind so much losing to Powell, he has lost to him before, and Powell is the elder who paved Bolt's way, and they are on good terms.

So, like with Kiryu, for now we watch to see how Bolt and Blake progress, because their battle will be with only each other before and during the Jamaican nationals. I think Blake will give it a go unless he is really torn up, because he still has something to prove.

The upshot of all this for me?

POWELL!!

the testers are closing in on the jamacians

expect a falloff in performances this year

Oh my lord another thread full of idiots.

So he juiced for the 150M in Brazil where he ran 14.42s just .07 off his personal best time and then he stopped juicing between that race and the race in Cayman? Is that what the conspirators are saying? Or is the simpler explanation the one he put forward that he had a bad race? Doesn't Bolt get to have an off day too?

SoExplainItToMe wrote:

So he juiced for the 150M in Brazil where he ran 14.42s just .07 off his personal best time and then he stopped juicing between that race and the race in Cayman? Is that what the conspirators are saying? Or is the simpler explanation the one he put forward that he had a bad race? Doesn't Bolt get to have an off day too?

Off day?? What's that? ExplainItTome :)

Sprintgeezer, will Bolt and Blake even race each other at the Jamaican Nationals?

Blake doesn't have to do the 100 since he's the defending champ and same with Bolt in the 200. Neither needs to qualify in the other's event.

I wonder if Blake's injury will keep him from trying the 100/200 double at the WC.

How you got all this from one race is absurd...I'm still trying to find out why people even listen to this nonsense. I guess this is mostly a runners forum for a reason.